By Christopher Harper
With the Biden administration proposing another $24 billion to support Ukraine’s military, I think it may be time to reassess my enthusiastic backing of the fight against Russia.
The United States is by far the largest donor to Ukraine. Congress has already approved $113 billion in military, economic, humanitarian, and other aid for Ukraine, including around $70 billion for security, intelligence, and additional war-fighting costs. An estimated 90 percent of that total has already been spent or designated to be spent.
In the past year, overall support for Ukraine has waned. According to a poll released by CNN last week, fifty-five percent of Americans now oppose more aid to Ukraine. The party breakdown is stark—71 percent of Republicans oppose additional assistance, while 62 percent of Democrats favor it.
Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. His invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea and the subsequent attacks a year ago, is anathema to world peace and security.
But is the wholesale support of Ukraine worth the cost and the potential downside of exhausting the ability of the United States to keep its military ready to fight against other threats, such as China?
The Heritage Foundation has put together a rather convincing case against continuing aid to Ukraine at its current levels.
In a recent opinion piece, Kevin Roberts, the president of the foundation, wrote the following:
–“It is simply untenable for Americans to bear the vast majority of the burden among our allies in standing up to threatening states.”
–“Our concentration on Ukraine has undermined our ability to address the worsening military situation in Asia, especially around Taiwan.”
–“However just and noble Ukraine’s cause is, continuing to focus on it at the expense of confronting and deterring China is not wise, moral, or conservative.”
Roberts makes a variety of good points. I take away three important ones. First, U.S. foreign policy must focus mainly on China’s economic and military threat rather than Russia’s. Second, the United States must take a strategic approach toward Ukraine rather than depleting American military stockpiles. Third, Russia poses a more significant threat to Europe than the United States, so NATO countries should assume a substantial burden of the cost. See https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/the-correct-conservative-approach-ukraine-shifts-the-focus-china#
I’m not arguing that we should cut off Ukraine. We just need to figure out a better strategy there and an even better one in dealing with China.
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